Stevens gets $30 million for UAF supercomputer upgrade

The Arctic Region Supercomputing Center will receive $30 million in upgrade money in the next federal fiscal year, Alaska Sen. Ted Stevens said Saturday.

The money was arranged during the House-Senate conference on the defense appropriations bill. Stevens chairs the Senate Appropriations Committee and its defense subcommittee.

The supercomputer is located at the University of Alaska Fairbanks.

Most of its capacity is used for Department of Defense scientists and engineers, Stevens said.

He added that an upgraded and modernized supercomputer would be of use should a national missile defense system be built in Alaska.

The high-speed, high-capacity computer is also used by scientists and researchers for a variety of studies, among them global climate change, arctic engineering, arctic biology and upper atmospheric activity.